"Jose has got pace, strength and a great left foot," he told liverpoolfc.com. "In recent games, he has played balls into Luis Suarez and he spun a couple of good passes down the channel for him against Southampton but, unfortunately, Luis couldn't get on the end of them.

"He's had his injuries as well and he's overcome them and worked hard on his fitness. The levels he has got himself to have been phenomenal. Jose's certainly a lad whose fitness is important to him.

"He produced again on Saturday and, like Brendan said, he was unplayable."